MAKS (spacecraft)
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The MAKS (Multipurpose aerospace system) (Russian: МАКС (Многоцелевая авиационно-космическая система)) is a Soviet air-launched orbiter reusable launch system project that was proposed in 1988, but cancelled in 1991. The MAKS orbiter was supposed to reduce the cost of transporting materials to Earth orbit by a factor of ten. The reusable orbiter and its external expendable fuel tank would have been launched by an Antonov
AN-225 The Antonov An-225 Mriya (; NATO reporting name: Cossack) was a large strategic airlift cargo aircraft designed and produced by the Antonov, Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was originally developed during the 1980s as an enlarged ...
airplane, developed by Antonov ASTC (
Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
,
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
). Had it been built, the system would have weighed and been capable of carrying a payload. Three variants of the MAKS system were conceived: MAKS-OS, the standard configuration with the orbiter on top of the fuel tank; MAKS-T, with upgraded payload capability and a configuration that involved the fuel tank above the orbiter; and MAKS-M, a version that included its fuel tank within the envelope of the orbiter. As of June 2010, Russia was considering reviving the MAKS program. In Ukraine, this project has developed into other air-launched orbiter projects, such as Svityaz and Oril.


See also

*
Air launch to orbit Air-launch-to-orbit (ALTO) is the method of launching smaller rockets at altitude from a heavier conventional horizontal-takeoff aircraft, to carry satellites to low Earth orbit. It is a follow-on development of air launches of experimental air ...
*
Buran programme The ''Buran'' programme (, , "Snowstorm", "Blizzard"), also known as the "VKK Space Orbiter programme" (), was a Soviet and later Russian reusable spacecraft project that began in 1974 at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in Moscow and w ...
* * RD-701 - main engine


References

Proposed spacecraft Spaceplanes Cancelled Soviet spacecraft {{USSR-spacecraft-stub